Dough-proofing machine.



F. J. WOLFF.

DOUGH P|.0OFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- 4. 1912. 7 1 14532352, Patented July 20, 1915 5SHEETSSHEET 2.

W1 11m :5 s e s Ipveptor K54 1r WMW F. J. WOLFF.

Patented July 20, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

.2. E1 N9 m, 04 M ND HE n RN m F, J. WOLFF.

DOUGH PROOFINGMACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 4. 1912.

1,147,352. Patented July 20, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

Wnpesses F. J. WOLFF.

DOUGH PROOFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 4, 1912.

1,147,352. Patented July 20, 1915. V

I 5 SHEETS-STIEET 5 M19633 as I V6910]? UNITED STATES PATENT cariesFBEDRICK J. WOLFE, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

DOUGH-PBDOFING MACHINE.

Patented July 20, 1915.

Application filed November 4, 1912'. Serial No. 729,398.

able receptacles or carriers, means for auto-' matically fiourin thesame, means for automatically depositing the loaves in thefiouredreceptacles or carriers, means for automatically tilting thecarriers, and means actuated by each tilting carrier for kicking theloaf out of the following carrier as the same is tilted.

With this general ob]ect in View and others as" hereinafter appear, theinvention consists'in certain novel and peculiar fea tures ofconstruction and organization as hereinafter described and claimed, andin order that it may be fully understood reference is to be' had to theaccompanying' drawings, in which Figure 1, is a side view of adough-proofing machine embodying my .inventi on. Fig. 2, is a front viewof the same. Fig. 3, is a top plan view of the machine with its topremoved. Fig. 4, is an'enlarged vertical section on the line IVIV ofFig. 5. Fig. 5, is

a horizontal section on the'line V-V' of Fig. 4. Fig. 6, is ahorizoiital section on the line VI -V I of Fig. 7. Fig. 7, is a verticalsection on the line V1IVII of Fig. 6. Fig. 8, is a vertical section onthe line VIII-VIII of Fig. 3, and shows a part of the top, omitted fromFig. 3. Fig. 9, is a section on the line IX-IX of Fig. 4. Fig. 10, is asection on the line X of Fig. 3. Fig. 11, is a vertical section of oneof the flourholders.

In the said drawings, 1 indicates a large casing and arrangedhorizontally acrossand within the lower front end of the sumeis anobliquely arranged shaft 2, equipped nearer one end than the other, witha sprocket wheel 3, engaged by an endless s rocket chain 4. Said chainextends upwar ly and rearwardly and engages a glide sprocket wheel-5, ona transverse sh and from wheel 5 the chain extends respectively over andunder 'an upper series of sprocket wheels 7, mounted on suitablyjournaled transverse shafts 8, and a lower series of sprocket wheels 9mounted on suitably journaled transverse shafts 10, and from the last ofthe series of wheels 9, the ob ain extends upward beyond the plane ofthe series of wheels 7 and extends forwardly over a series of sprocketwheels 11* mounted upon obliquely extending parallel shafts 12, theforemost. of said wheelsll being disposed near the front end of casing.1, and at the opposite side; of the longitudinal center thereof fromwheel 3, as shown clearly in Fig. 3, and from said foremost wheel 11,the chain extends downwardly and around and engages a sprocket wheel.13, mounted on shaft 6, and then extends upwardly and successively overand under a series of wheels 14 and 15 respectively mounted on shafts Sand 10, and from the last or rearmost of as shafts 8. From Wheel 16 thechain extends rearwardly and around a sprocket wheel 18, mounted on asuitably journaled shaft 19, and under an idler sprocket wheel 22,mounted on a suitably journaled transverse shaft 23, and then extendsinto a rear housin 2'4 secured to casing 1, and around a sproc et wheel25, mounted on a shaft 26, extending horizontally and transverselythrough said housing and journaled in brackets 27 secured to casing 1.

From wheel 25 the chain extends downwardly and forwardly under andengages a sprocket wheel 28,'mounted on a shaft 29, extendingtransversely through the case in parallelism with shaft 2, and'.. fromwheel 28 the chain extends back to wheel 3, it being noted thatthe'wheel 28 is disposed diagonally oppo'site wheel 3, so that the chainshall extend directly from one-ofsaid wheels to another.

30 indicates swing arms pivotally pendent from opposite sides of thechain .4, and arranged at equal distances'over' and terminating at theirlower, ends in fingers 31 adapted to engage the hub of wheel'18, in

passing over the same, and fitting against Gil {hub trwhijsl, A I

fingers, 31, in ruling therecver, to overturn thereceptacles 32, asshown in Fig. 8, for

- "the; purpose of dumping the unbaked loaves 'tjdown through-a chute33. To guard against the unbak ed loaves sticking in thereceptacles asthe latter are overturned as explai-ned, each receptacle is providedwith a --'roughened inner surface produced by sege'fc'u'ring thereon inany suitable manner 'a vegetable grit, such as corn, rice or wheatgrits, as I have found in practicethatwith the Interior of thereceptacles properly oughencd, the unbaked loaves will alr'nost as" the1 latter are successively overturned a'shereinbefore. mentioned; It jisnecessary that the grit shall be of a vegetable ,xzharacter so that;should any of the grit adiolf here to the loaf, it will 'not'benoticeable to -ythe consumer, and in this 'connection it he interiorsurfacejof the receptacles, there 1s no necessity for even dusting thesame with flour ashereinafter described. As .an "additional precaution,however, in insuring the discharge of the unbaked'loaves from thereceptacles, as the same are overturned, I provide .a ;pair offour-armed oicrossso shaped kickers 34, secured on a suitably journaledshaft 35, one of the kickers being arranged in' the longitudinal planesof each *seriesof receptacles, so that as a receptacle {is caused totilt as'its res ective finger 31 "as comes in Contact with the ub of thewheel 18, it is engaged by one of the arms of the adjacent kicker, saidarm becoming embed orfotherwisc and afterward deposited in,

thmhakingpans, not shown. Immediately after th dumping operation"described is.,- acco' mplished,-the receptacles conveyed from undershaft 19 and swing ;;by agravity 'to the'ir original upright position inin trave fr'om,-1,a point 7. sprocket wheel122't0, S rocket. wheel '25so to pass under 's'ifters.-- he're'f a'r'e two 'of 1 these Siftersarranged 'side by. side Lane in the. vertical plane of the series "ofreceptacles at onegside of the chain er --conveyer and the other in thevertical plane of the "seriesjnf receptacl s at the to :cause thefliinvariably fall the receptacles should be ntioned, that by-roughening.

ded slightly in the loafl-in said receptacle below.

'other side of said chain or conveyor. Tl.

Sifter mechanism is constructed as follows 35.. is a pair of channeledvertical guide: secured within and to the side of hous ing 24. 36 is aboard arranged horizontally and extending from one side to the other andprovided with end grooves 37 slidingly receiving the guides and toadjust'said board vertically, an inverted bolt 38 extends up through itand the top of the housing 24 (see Fig. 7) and is engaged at its upperend by a hand wheel 39, whereby said board can be raised or lowered. Theboard is provided with a hole 10 in the vertical plarie of each seriesof said receptacles, andis of approximately the same diameter as'thereceptacles, and extending through said holes and secured in. anysuitable manner to s d.

board, are Hour holders 41 provided foraminous bottoms 42, and spiders43 re} ing on the foraminous bottoms. The holders are also provided withspiders 44 at their upper ends and extending centrally through thespiders and the foraminous bottoms 42, are tie-rods 45, and journaled onsaid tie rods and fitting against the undersides of-said foraminousbottoms, are

spider scrapers 46, provided withdepending pins 47.equipped preferablywith antifriction rolls 48, the arrangement being such that as eachunbaked loaf receptacle passes under a holder 11, the upper end of thearm or hanger-of said last-named receptacle strikes one of the pins orthe rollers of the overlying-scraper spider and imparts turning movementto the same, this turning movementresulting in' sifting a sufficient.quan-! tity of flour from said holder down into the underlying unbakedloaf receptacle to. thorough-ly-dust the same. To guard against anyposibilityi, ofonefof said receptacles passing under thcjholder's in atilted position, so

as to ,perhaps passfwithout receivin a' charge of fiounfrom the holders,:1. re 49 extends longitudinally between the bottom ofeach holder andthe underlying receptacles 32,-and terminates in an upturnedcurvedportion 50, which portion, as above suggested,insures thereceptacles32 at the same side of the conveyer, assuming a horizontalosition as they pass under the corre on. ingflour holder.

' fter the receptacles 32 receive the flour,

' which of course is to guard against the sticking of the unbakd loavesin said receptacles, though the dusting is not absolutely essentialwiththe receptacles roughened inside as explained; the travel diagonally.forward andptothe-rigt and pass under a pair of horizontalfigu'ardsf51f-provided with seggnental 52 intheir front ends, andvto nsure theretention of said receptacles in a horizontal position as theyare'c'arried by rgerupwerdly and around shaft 2,. 51 are roundedat theirexidsl-as.

FAQs-z lie 'tially at 53. As the receptacles attain substanthe plane ofthe front ends of the 51,.they'each receive an unhaked a i v emeansifordelivering the unbaked leaves into ihehggc'eptacles 32 isconstructed as follows: 54- is"a hopper divided by partition 55 into twosimilar passages or chutes 1'56 which terminate at their lowerends inthe horizontal plane of the upper ends of the guards 51 same slightlgreater than the diameter of j the feceptac f-iib tacle, thelatter'cannot turn over and dump {the loafbecause its rearward swingingmove cs 32 and in this connection it will be noted by reference to Fig.4, that under the impact of a loaf shot into a recepment is almostinstantly arrested by contact :;,.wah the adjacen person of the ends ofthe ards 51.

eliver the loaves automatically and alternately into the chutes 56, abox 57 is mounted upon the hopper and pivoted for oscillatory movementin the box at a point vertically over the partition 55 is an invert edT-sha'ped deflector 58 and at each side of the stem of the deflector, acurved plate 59 extends from the upper part of said stem to the outerend of the corresponding side portion of'the head of the deflector,thearbeing such that as a loaf drops the plates 59, it overbalances thedeflector *and causes the same to swing as 1 indicated b the arrow Fig.9, so as to raise the origina ydepressed portion of the head of thedeflector and lower the elevated portion thereof, the lowering ofthelast-named -*-,'head,resulting in permitting the loaf to drop -downinto. the underlying chute '56. The

next loaf obviously reverses the action ofthe deflector and fallsdowninto the other chute 56 as will be readily understood.

To deliver the loaves into the top of the box so that they shall infalling strike and operate the deflector as explained, a hood 60 formingthe upper part of an endless conveyer casing 61 is employed. 62 is anend- 1 .into the cup 63 and upon the loaves therein.

less conveyor extending through the casing '61 and provided with a cup63, in which the loaves are deposited in any suitable manner and: forflourin the said cup and the leaves therein, flour receptacle 64: is se-(211M110. the casing 61 and is provided with a forariiinous' botwm 65 soarranged that flour dropping through thersame will fall The flourreceptacle contains an oscillatory sifting device 66,- as shown,scraping upon the foraminous' bottom 65 and to operate said siftingdevice 66, its shaft 67 'carries a crankarm'68 connected by a link 69with the shorter crank 70 on a shaft 71, in the upper part ',of theelevator 62. 'This shaft 71 is N equipped with a s rocket wheel 72connected thy a sprocket c ain 73, with and a distance forward of the.

a sprocket- 76 is a second sprocket wheel on shaft- "connected by achain '77 with a large sprocket wheel 78 on the central shaft of theseries 8, hereinbefore described, and said shaft and the other shafts ofsaid series and shafts 17-are equipped with bevel gears 79 meshing withbevel gears 80 on a longitudinal shaft 81, journaled in suitablebearings 82 carried by the casing. The shaft carrying wheel 78 carries asmaller sprocket 83, connected by a chain 84 with a sprocket wheel 85mounted on shaft 26, and said shaft is equipped with a sprocket wheel86, connected by a chain 87 with sprocket Wheel 88 on a shaft 89equipped with a belt wheel 90 to which power is transmitted from anysuitable source.

Assuming that the machine 'is in operation, it will be seen that theconveyor for the unbaked loaf receptacles travels in the directionindicated by arrows adjacent to the conveyer in the various figures, andthat the elevator 62 discharges unbaked loaves at regular intervals intothe box 57 and that said loaves alternately operate the deflector sothat the same shall permit them to'alternately pass down through chutes56,the parts being so timed that at the moment a loaf attains the lowerend of a chute one of the receptacles in the same vertical plane as saidchute, is passing upward adjacent to the front end of its respectiveguide 51 so that it will be impossible for such receptacle under theimpact of the leaf to turn over or spill the leaf. Each loadedreceptacle then follows the tortuous course described by the conveyer inpassin over wheels 7 -and 9 and then passes upwardly over the shafts 12and diagonally forward. under shaft 6, from which point it again travelsin' a tortuous course over shafts 8 and under shafts 10. After passingunder the rearmost of the shafts 10, the receptacle passes upward andrearwardly over shafts l7 and 19 and in passing around said last-namedshaft is tilted or dumped as hereinbefore explained to discharge theloaf through chute 33. The receptacle immediately swings to an uprightposition and then passes forwardly over the idler shaft 21, downwardlyunder idler shaft 23, and rearwardly into the housing 24, where itreceives flour from the holders ell after which it passes downwardlyover shaft 26 and then downwardly and forwardly under shaft 29 anddiagonally forward to the p have illustratedgind described the preferredembodiment of the invention I wish it to be understood that I reservethe right to make all changes falling within the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined by the ap pended claims.

I claim:

. 1. In a. dough-proofing machine, an endless conveyer, a series ofdough receptacles carried by said conveyer, means acting au-.tomatically at a certain point in the travel of the conveyor forsuccessively overturning said receptacles, and means adapted to entereach receptacle during its overturning operation to engage the doughandfacilitate.

the discharge thereof frompthe receptacle.

2. In a dough-proofing'machine, an endless conveyer, a series of doughreceptacles I pivotally carried'by said conveyer, means actingautomatically at a certain point in the travel of the conveyer forsuccessively swinging and thereby overturning said;. recep'tacles, and a'series of fingers adapted to enter each receptacle 'while' beingoverturned to engage the doughand'cotiperate with said meansto dischargethe dough from the ref cepta'cl'e. V 3. In a dough-proofim'e, machine,an endless conveyer, a series of dough receptacles carried by saidconveyor and forming two parallel rows arranged side by side, meansacting automatically at a certain point in the travel of the conveyerfor successively overturning said receptacles, and means as sociatedwith each of sald row-s of receptacles and adapted to enter thereceptacles as. they are overturned to engage the interior thereof andfacilitate the discharge of dough therefrom, said last-named means andsaid receptacles being constructed and arranged so that the-engagementof the receptacles of one row with its. associated means will actuatethesaid associated means-of the other row.

4. In a dough proofing machine, an end A less conveyer, a series ofdough receptacles carried by s'a1d conveyer and formlng two parallelrows arranged in staggered relation, means acting automatically at acertain' point in the travel of the conveyer for s'uccessivelyoverturning said receptacles, an'da series of fing'ersassoclated witheachof said rows of receptacles for engaging the interior of the sameas'they are overturnedand facilitating the dischargerof the doughtherefrom, said series of fingers being connected for movement togetherso that the engagement of one series by an overturning ..receptacle willactuate the othe series of said fingers.

5. Ina dough-proofing machine, a casing,

ceptacles pivotally suspended from the said conveyer, means tooperatesaid conveyer to carry the receptacles successively upward pastthe lower end of the chute, so that each will receive an unbaked loaftherefrom, means to overturn each receptacle as it passes over the spoutto dump the unbaked loaf through the spout, and means adjacent the lowerend of the chute and at the opposite side of the receptacles from thechute as the-receptacles move upward past the chu'teto limit theswinging movement imqmrted to' such receptacles under the impact thereonof loaves from the chute to insure the retention of the loaves inthereceptacles.

6; 'Ina dough'proofing machine, a casing, a chute communicating with thefront end of the casing, a discharge spout for the casthrough the casingand'disposed at one point adjacent-the lower end of the chute and atanother point? over said discharge spout, receptacles pivotallysuspended from said conveyer, means to operate'said conveyer to carrythe receptacles successively upward past the'l'ower end of the chute, sothat each will receive an; unbaked loaf therefrom, means to overturneach receptacle as it Ting, a tortuous endless conveyer extending passesover the spout to dump the unbaked v loaf through'the spout, and asubstantially horizontal guide overlying the dough recepta'clesadjacentthe lower end of the chute and provided at its front endwith a .seg- 1oomental recess'into which the meta acles pro- 'ject and adapted to bestruck' y said receptacles and-prevent undue. swin 'ng movement thereofimparted tothemj y vthe impact therein'ofloaves from the chute,

In testimony whereof I afiix my in the presence of, two witnesses.

FREDRICK J. WOLFF.

Witnesses: 1 H. O. RODGERS, Y. Tracers.

signature, 1

